# splitString

## Category
String

## Arity
**Binary** — `<string> splitString <separator>`.
Also accepts array form: `splitString [string, separator]`.

```
<string> splitString <string>
splitString <array>   // [string, separator]
```

## Description
Splits a string by the given separator into an array of substrings. Returns the array. If the separator is not found, returns an array with the original string as the single element.

## How It Works
Calls `string.Split(separator, StringSplitOptions.None)` with ordinal comparison. Empty strings between consecutive separators are preserved (unlike `StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries`).

## Usage

### Basic split
```sqf
"a,b,c" splitString ",";       // ["a", "b", "c"]
splitString ["a,b,c", ","];    // same, array form
```

### CSV parsing
```sqf
_line = "John,Doe,42,Engineer";
_fields = _line splitString ",";
_name = _fields select 0;      // "John"
_age = parseNumber (_fields select 2);  // 42
```

### Path splitting
```sqf
_path = "scripts\ai\combat.sqf";
_parts = _path splitString "\";
_filename = _parts select (count _parts - 1);  // "combat.sqf"
```

### Multi-character separator
```sqf
_data = "key=value;name=test;hp=100";
_pairs = _data splitString ";";
_pairs forEach {
    _kv = _x splitString "=";
    systemChat f"{_kv select 0} -> {_kv select 1}";
};
```

### Word splitting
```sqf
_words = "the quick brown fox" splitString " ";
count _words;                  // 4
```

## Thread Safety
ReadOnly — pure computation, returns new array. Safe from any scheduler.

## See Also
- [joinString](joinString.md) — reverse: join array into string
- [find](find.md) — find substring position
- [in](in.md) — substring check
- [select](select.md) — access characters